Authenticity in art

Authenticity in art is the different ways in which a work of art or an artistic performance may be considered authentic.Denis Dutton distinguishes between nominal authenticity and expressive authenticity. The first refers to the correct identification of the author of a work of art, to how closely a performance of a play or piece of music conforms to the author's intention, or to how closely a work of art conforms to an artistic tradition. The second sense refers to how much the work possesses original or inherent authority, how much sincerity, genuineness of expression, and moral passion the artist or performer puts into the work.

A quite different concern is the authenticity of the experience, which may be impossible to achieve. A modern visitor to a museum may not only see an object in a very different context from that which the artist intended, but may be unable to understand important aspects of the work. The authentic experience may be impossible to recapture.

Authenticity is a requirement for inscription upon the UNESCO World Heritage List. According to the Nara Document on Authenticity, it can be expressed through 'form and design; materials and substance; use and function; traditions and techniques; location and setting; spirit and feeling; and other internal and external factors.'

Authenticity of provenance means that the origin or authorship of a work of art has been correctly identified. As Lionel Trilling points out in his 1972 book Sincerity and Authenticity, the question of authenticity of provenance has acquired a profoundly moral dimension. Regardless of the appearance of the object or the quality of workmanship, there is great importance in knowing whether a vase is a genuine Ming vase or just a clever forgery. This intense interest in authenticity is relatively recent and is largely confined to the western world. In the medieval period, and in countries such as modern Thailand, there was or is little interest in the identity of the artist.

The case of Han van Meegeren is well known. After failing to succeed as an artist in his own right, he turned to creating fake Vermeer paintings. These were accepted as genuine by experts and acclaimed as masterpieces. After being arrested for selling national treasures to the Germans, he caused a sensation when he publicly demonstrated that he was the artist. To guard against forgeries like this, a certificate of authenticity may be used to prove that a work of art is authentic. But there is a sizable market in fake certificates. The financial importance of authenticity may bias collectors to acquiring recent works of art where provenance can more easily be proven, perhaps even by a statement from the artist. For older works, an increasingly sophisticated array of forensic techniques may be deployed to establish authenticity of provenance.

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